244 PLANT FAMILIES : MONOCOTYLEDONS. 



398. The pistillate plants (sometimes called female plants). Compare 

 with the staminate plant. How many leaves are there ? Is the number of 

 leaves constant on all the pistillate plants ? Cut away one side of the spathe 

 and expose the spadix of pistillate flowers. Sketch. Observe that each 

 flower consists of a single flask-shaped pistil, and that these are packed closely 

 together. Note the delicate brush-like stigma. Search for plants which 

 show both stamens and pistils on the same spadix. Where both kinds of 

 flowers are present on the same spadix, on what part of the spadix does each 

 kind appear? On the corm of different plants search for lateral buds, which 

 are young plants. Observe that they usually arise on directly opposite sides 

 of the corm ; that they easily become freed from the old corms ; that they 

 are young corms. Do they arise in the axils of the leaves or scale leaves 

 which have fallen away ? 



Cut off a portion of the corm. Do not eat any portion but touch the 

 tongue to the cut surface. The flesh of the corm is very acrid. 



DESCRIPTION OF THE INDIAN-TURNIP. 



399. Indian-turnip. The "Indian-turnip," or " jack-in- 

 the-pulpit " (Arisaema triphyllum), loves the cool, shady, rich, 

 alluvial soil of low grounds, or along streams, or on moist 

 hillsides. A group of the jacks is shown in figure 210 as they 

 occur in the rich soil on dripping rocks in one of our glens. 

 At their feet is a carpet of moss. Often the violet sits humbly 

 underneath its spreading three-parted leaves. The thin, strap- 

 shaped spathe, unfolded at its base, bends gracefully over the 

 spadix, the sterile end of which stands solitary in the pulpit 

 thus formed. The flowers are very much reduced, i.e., the 

 number of members in the sets is reduced so that they do not 

 appear in threes as in the typical monocotyledons. Some of 

 the members are also often reduced in size or are rudimentary. 

 The plants are " dimorphic " usually. 



400. Female plants. The large plants usually bear the 

 pistillate flowers, which are clustered around the base of the 

 spadix, each flower consisting of a single pistil, oval in form, 

 terminating in a brush-like stigma. The stigma consists of 

 numerous spreading, delicate hairs. The open cavity of the 

 short style is hairy also, and a brush of hairs extends into the 

 cavity of the ovary. Into this brush of internal hairs the necks 



